Deoderant, Banana Bars, and Badassery

The first two weeks of the Rocket City Training plan in the bag!  I've made 100% of my planned workouts for 2 weeks straight.  The sore spot along my shin (which actually popped up during my swim block) is feeling much better.

This week ended with just under 8 hours of training; just under 22 miles ran, just under 40 miles ridden and just under 3k swam.

 It was a BADASS week.  I discovered the following:

1. I can gain a lot of speed in my flipturns
2. I can ride 18-19 mph average on 5 hours of sleep
3. I can now run in zone 1/2 at a sub-11 pace

Doesn't this look like
a BADASS!?! 
Just sayin'.

I have run 20-21 miles total the past two weeks, so if you average my pace for the 20-21 miles that's about 11:30/mile.  THE BEST PART IS, I FEEL AWESOME!  I don't have the bonks or the jimmies or the heebies during 6-8 mile runs like I did last year when I started into long runs.  That's an excellent indicator of progress that I am FEELING AWESOME and TRAINING around or under my goal pace. My goal pace for this race is 11:20/mile - ALTHOUGH the pie-in-the-sky goal with 4 more months of work and some Yassos is 4:30-4:48.

WHY 4:48, YOU ASK?

I'm glad you did.

6:48 was my very first marathon time, and I'd really like this to be the year I can say: I've taken two HOURS off my marathon time since 2007.

Still, I'll be SUPER HAPPY with a 5-hour marathon, especially considering 5:35 is my best so far.  5 hours would still be an hour and 48 minutes less than my first marathon.


HERE'S SOME STUFF that I am loving right now that makes all this badassery possible.

Cytomax Pom Berry.  None of the belly-upsetting over-sweeteness of Gatorade/Powerade, and a flavor that is not too strong and nothing like your standard lime/lemon/orange/blue drinks.

MetaSalts. Necessary in the Florida heat/humidity. The only thing I don't like here is you take 2 at a whack, unlike Salt Stick (a serving of Salt Stick is 1 pill).  I still ADORE CarboPro (this company's main product) for LONG LONG training (100 mile rides, Iron distance weeks), but I may switch back to Salt Stick so I have to carry less on marathon day.

Clandestino Banana Bars.  120 calories of dark-chocolate-coated-banana deliciousness.  Seriously, that's all that's in them - bananas and chocolate.  They pack a nice little potassium and sugar punch, they are WAY more delicious than GU or chews, and you can eat  half of one and jam the rest back inside the little foil wrapper for later.

Secret deoderant (really any of the invisible solids, but Flawless Renewal or 48-Hour Outlast in particular.)  Did you know you could use deoderant as Body Glide?  I am sure there are some sensitive-skinned out there who can't, but I sure can.  It's half the price, you can find it anywhere, and - BONUS - it makes you smell better too!

RunKeeper - www.runkeeper.com  I live in a mid-rise building with a concrete parking garage.  If I waited for my Timex Global Trainer to grab satellites every day, my runs would be an extra hour each.  I back it up using the RunKeeper app on my phone, which I have to have for safety purposes, and then I have more detailed data about heart rate on my Timex.

 This is how August looks so far:

Bike:	2h 08m - 39.29 Mi
Run:	2h 45m 25s - 14.24 Mi
Swim:	59m 26s - 2700 Yd
Strength:	40m

This is how I finished out July:

July's totals:
Bike:	7h 37m 41s - 133.5 Mi
Run:	7h 40m 53s - 40.57 Mi
Swim:	6h 31m 42s - 16950 Yd
Strength:	1h 35m
Massage:	1h 10m
Walking:	3h 00m 

BONUS PHOTO:



This isn't tri-related, but she got locked
out of the bathroom and pooped in a closet last month.
Totally the mommy's fault.



The Apocalypse is Upon Us aka Two Letters I've Never Uttered Together

Yesterday was my short zone 1/2 run and today was my mid-distance zone 1/2 run. Each week I have 2 zone 1/2 runs (one shorter and one long), 1 short speed run and 1 mid-distance run that is either speed or 1/2 depending on how much coach wants to torture me.  Then I also have 1 ride which is either trainer work or hill repeats and one swim which is drills out the ass. (I just got informed that I'm doing a kick set the size of almost an entire swim.  I was unamused.)

But something was wrong with this run.  I kept glancing down at my GPS to check my time and distance, and between slow-downs for corners, those moments before you pause at traffic lights, and a few tiny hills, it kept flashing something close to my 5k pace. And I was in zones 1 and 2.  In fact, my average heart rate stayed in low zone 2 the whole run. 

How can I be only 30-60 seconds off my 5k pace in zones 1 and 2?

I finished the run with an average of 10:49.  That's still a good bit off my 5k pace (8:40-9:11), but holy crap.  I saw those paces on my watch several times.  I've NEVER seen those on my watch during a zone 1/2 run.  EVER.

Now, to a lot of you Speed Demons, this is tortuously slow running.  For those of you, recall that, just around the time of my surgery, before and after they found my cancer, my zone 1/2 runs were 14-15 minute miles.  That's 4+ minutes slower than I am running now.  And that was only 2 years ago.  Even if I go back to 2006 when I first started racing - 6 years ago - my zone 1/2 was 12-14 minutes/mile then.

My goal pace for this race would put me at MOST of the marathon in zone 1/2 at 11:21 per mile.  I just did one of my FIRST 1/2 runs of the season completely SUB-11.  Today's run of double the distance was smack on my marathon goal pace.

So my mind gets to whirring and buzzing and clicking (relax, this is normal), and I think the unthinkable.

Maybe I could finish this marathon in like 4:30-4:48.

That's 2 HOURS off my very first marathon in 2007.

And that's not a slow marathon anymore.

Anything under 5 hours isn't slow, but that's REALLY not slow.

And then my brain goes:

Hell, if I lost 4 minutes per mile in two years, in two more years I'll be running in zone 1 and 2 at about 8:30 per mile.

And that's when it hit me.

That's Boston pace.

I always said I had no interest in trying to BQ.  But that was back when I associated that pace with my lactate threshold, dying, trying-not-to-puke pace. If I can be at Boston pace in zone 1 or 2, a BQ wouldn't feel quite that bad.  Granted, I'd have to train to do it for 26.2 miles, but I've trained to do a LOT of things for 3-10 hours.

So it was decided.  The Apocalypse is upon us. 

Me, a former 6:48 marathoner, adding Boston qualifying to my 5-year plan. (And no, Ironman still isn't on it.)


Yup, end of the world is nigh.

Marathon Training, Week 2, Days 4-5: This Marathon Ain't Gonna Run Itself and The Bastard Can't Beat Me

*Pssst . . . don't tell the dawg . . . but I'm running by myself tomorrow.*

We had a nice 2-miler last night (it was supposed to be a 3-miler, but we both pooped out before we reached the 1.5-mile mark, so we cut it short). It was pretty warm, so I didn't have the same pep in my step that I have during a.m. runs, but overall I felt awesome. The only thing I'm a little disappointed with is my speed. Of course, some of that is because I have brought Kona on the last few runs and we take multiple potty breaks. (If he's dawdling, I tell him This marathon ain't gonna run itself, you know. Then I start doing the can-can. Yes, the can-can. Don't ask me why, but it gets him moving again. Something about seeing your Short Human Caretaker kicking like a Radio City Rockette must trigger the fight-or-flight response in the canine brain.) I also haven't run any distance greater than 2 miles in the last few months, so I want to know that I haven't "lost it."

Well. We already know I've "lost it." Yuk yuk yuk.

Tomorrow is the RunNona 5k, which is my first race in about 4 months, on the first day of a very special month. Every November I celebrate my birthday for the entire month. I figure, why spend one day bemoaning how I'm clinging to my 20's by the skin of my teeth when I can celebrate my newfound perspective for 30 days? This year, I'm kicking off the month with a 5k.

I hate 5ks.

HATE!

HATESOMUCH!

I hate them for the same reason I hate sprint-distance triathlons: it's all about pushing hard to go fast. By the time I get my pace, the race is over. If I ever get my pace - because I don't like pain.

But tomorrow I'm just going to have to suck it up, because my ex-husband is also racing. And I taught him everything he knows. I Can't Let let That Bastard Beat Me.

At least not by a lot.

Today: at least 2 miles of walking.

Tomorrow: the 5k and following athletes at IM FL.

Sunday: 6-8mi LSD.

Next week: the world.

:D